Hoda Shabrang; Bahare Tajik
Abstract
IntroductionNowadays, speaking about immigration and its consequences is a controversial topic of many academic groups. The rise of postcolonialism and immigration has led to indescribable changes in world public affairs. In the field of immigration studies, the individual experiences of women in the ...
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IntroductionNowadays, speaking about immigration and its consequences is a controversial topic of many academic groups. The rise of postcolonialism and immigration has led to indescribable changes in world public affairs. In the field of immigration studies, the individual experiences of women in the diaspora are not significantly considered as the dominant experiences of immigrant men who are still claimed to represent all immigrants. Thus, it can become challenging to examine female migration experiences and it consequences which are ignored and overlooked. For this reason the eminent novel of Mohsin Hamid, Exit West, is chosen. This article carefully examines the consequences of assimilation of female characters in the hybridized Space.Background of the StudyAlthough assimilation to the host cultures in hybridized spaces situates migrant women in impossible situation or inbetween, the transformation of the migrant women’s identities can also become a tool to deconstruct stereotypes of third world women and patriarchal hegemonic discourse. In Exit West the main character, Nadia, is presented as the migrant woman with hybridized identity. The migrant woman is not obliged to choose between two identities, particularly between the cultural identity of the country where she comes from and that where she finds herself. In other words, both identities can co-exist in the same person, dialoguing and promoting cultural understanding. In this way immigrant woman in hybridized space is empowered to move freely between cultures and establish a sense of home and belonging even in her new places. These ideas of identity transformation and identity creation are very evident in Nadia at Exit West, portrayed as a key example of an immigrant woman whose identity is influenced by the places and cultures she encounters around the world. She feels like “vermin” at first in the host culture yet she turns to a beautiful butterfly at the end of the story.MethodologyThe present article explores the ignored parts of female experiences as subalterns in migration and it focuses on the process of their assimilation in the host countries in accordance with the Gayatri Spivak’s theories. Her intention to illustrate that the level where the subaltern could be heard or read cannot be reached because what is said is either ignored, forgotten or it simply disappears from the official, male-centered historical. As the migrant woman’s identity transforms from “somebody” to “nobody”, she further more hopelessly agonizes as she also turns from a former member of a society to someone who is just “the Other”. This predicament of otherness is a universal reality among migrant women as they do not only experience it from people whose nationalities are different from them but also from men with whom they share similar race or background.ConclusionThe idea that female migrants consider their identities as multiple or fluid is a key theme in literary representations of the female migrant experiences in the novel, Exit West. The key point to consider is that such representations of the experience of the migrant woman underlines how this shift in identity does not only come in the form of a physical alteration of her body and geographical crossing of borders but, more so, in her symbolical and psychological being. Despite the number of challenging experiences for migrant women in Exit West, it does overall emphasizes on the positive impact of such migration experiences. In fact, migration is also depicted as an opportunity that opens doors for the migrant woman to be exposed to a multicultural life and to improve her quality of life.
Hoda Shabrang
Abstract
IntroductionThe key terms “hegemony” and “counter-hegemony” were first suggested by Antonio Gramsci to describe the soft power in the hands of the ruling system. In Gramsci’s definition, hegemony is related to those discourses in which the ruling system’s values are ...
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IntroductionThe key terms “hegemony” and “counter-hegemony” were first suggested by Antonio Gramsci to describe the soft power in the hands of the ruling system. In Gramsci’s definition, hegemony is related to those discourses in which the ruling system’s values are included and attempted to gain the consent of people in a soft way. In contrast, counter-hegemony means those opposing discourses that stand against the hegemonic discourses and expresses the ideals of the people outside power. While Naipaul’s A Bend in the River reflects the dominant hegemony in colonial and postcolonial era, it is at the same time concerned with exposing the ruling values and producing counter-hegemony. Background of the StudyAlthusser was in search of the ideologies that help Capitalism live through human souls, and be dominant and omniscient in the citizens of his hometown. With the benefit of the constructive system of thought of Claude Lévi-Strauss and Jacques Lacan psychoanalysis and their combination with the traditional Marxism, Althusser was demanding an analysis of different ideologies that elegantly has framed the thoughts and ideologies of a society has satisfied them, and at the same time they are reproducing themselves in the same system. Althusser always had two main questions in his mind, which has framed his Marxist thoughts: first, how a society with reproducing its connections and relationships reproduces itself, and becomes stable through the passing of time; second, what makes the society ready for a social revolution.Methodology Althusser mentions two major mechanisms for insuring that people within a state behave according to the rules of that state: Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA) and Repressive State Apparatuses (RSA). ISAs are institutions which generate ideologies that individuals (and groups) then internalize, and act in accordance with. These ISAs include schools, religions, the family, legal systems, politics, arts, sports – organizations that generate systems of ideas and values, which we as individuals believe. Another is what Althusser calls the RSAs that can enforce behavior directly, such as the police and the criminal justice system. Although the ISAs appear to be quite disparate, they are unified by subscribing to a common ideology in the service of the ruling class; indeed, the ruling class must maintain a degree of control over the ISAs in order to ensure the stability of the RSAs.ConclusionThe main focus of the selected novel is confined to the reign of the "Big Man" and most of his methods for institutionalizing his ideological system by the help of ISAs. He is well aware that using force and violence alone cannot be done, so he resorted to indirect ideological methods to gain legitimacy and gain public satisfaction. These include projects such as "nationalism" and "extremism" whereby the property of citizens of the descendants of the Congo is confiscated. The government also launches a special kind of school and university, a quasi-modern educational system based on all-European models to train obedient and westernized young intellectuals who lack the creativity and power of analysis. In all of this, the President does not resort to force and RSA feeds such as prisons, police, army and European mercenary troops, wherever necessary, but secretly uses them as far as necessary. So as not to tarnish his image in the minds of his people. But the mistake that this coup dictator is making is that he cannot reproduce his ideology and address its weaknesses according to the needs of society, a principle which Althusser emphasizes. As a result, this method loses its effectiveness over time, and the revolutionary forces of the Liberation Army with their anti-modern ideology destroy all the gains of the former regime.
Aliakbar Pormouzeh; Hoda Shabrang
Abstract
The present study in an analysis of violence and racism in the three novels of Tony Morison in light of Slavoj Žižek (1949-) theory of violence. Subjective violence refers to visible crime and terror in the social and individual level. Objective violence is both visible and invisible, manifested in ...
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The present study in an analysis of violence and racism in the three novels of Tony Morison in light of Slavoj Žižek (1949-) theory of violence. Subjective violence refers to visible crime and terror in the social and individual level. Objective violence is both visible and invisible, manifested in forms of systemic violence in racism, hate-speech, discrimination, and systemic violence as the catastrophic effects of economic and political systems. In A Mercy, slave trade, rape, and mercy represented ontological violence, subjective violence, and systemic violence, respectively. In Paradise, that is a reaction to racism and consequence of segregation laws, not only subjective violence is still committed, but also it is changed into invisible or objective forms such as interracial violence and intergenerational conflict. In God Help the Child, while all forms of violence are still performed, interracial conflict (between members of a colored family) reveals that new layers of violence and exploitation are reproduced which challenged the post-racial claims and endorses colorblind racism and emergence of racial identity crisis. Therefore, Morison considers racial norms as social and ideological constructions of colonialism that are regularly transformative and generative.
Hoda Shabrang
Abstract
Immigration experience is always accompanied by tension and conflict. In other words, the immigrant is always under a double paradoxical command. The host asks the immigrant to assimilate into its culture, yet simultaneously it orders him to keep a distance which results in the “paradox of assimilation ...
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Immigration experience is always accompanied by tension and conflict. In other words, the immigrant is always under a double paradoxical command. The host asks the immigrant to assimilate into its culture, yet simultaneously it orders him to keep a distance which results in the “paradox of assimilation and difference”. Therefore, the immigrant will be in an impossible situation: on the one hand he has to actively participate in the assimilation process; on the other hand, he should keep his distance from the host culture. The Immigrant artist is not allowed to create a kind of art which is completely related to his culture because it is not readable and understandable in the host country, neither is he allowed to create some kind of art which is completely related to the host culture since that place is reserved for the artists of the host country. In this article, first the “paradox of assimilation and difference” and its consequences will be discussed, then the movie A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night by Ana Lily Amirpour, who is an immigrant Iranian-American director, will be analyzed. The aim is to show how her shattered identity as an immigrant artist is represented in her art. Although this impossible situation seems very painful at first glance, it is beneficial for the immigrant artist. In this hybridized space, she creates a kind of art which is innovative and unique, because she is not completely preoccupied with the hollywoodian clichés imposed by the host culture.